Brusdar Graterol Injury: Dodgers RHP on IL with shoulder inflammation

LOS ANGELES – Brusdar Graterol’s comeback story has another twist. The Dodgers right-hander is back on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. That ends his regular season, but the team is still hopeful that Graterol could return at some point in the postseason.

Graterol threw his final pitch Tuesday night against the Padres, tossing a scoreless fifth inning.

“His last outing was five pitches, and the next day he still couldn’t catch,” manager Dave Roberts said Thursday. “That’s why we decided to get some scans done.”

Graterol also suffered shoulder inflammation during spring training and missed the first 112 games of the season. Roberts said Graterol had struggled with shoulder problems for years but had tried to get them under control.

“It’s kind of been a transition since he’s been back – good, then not good,” Roberts said. “What does that look like for the rest of the season? I just don’t know. I think it will be a week-to-week situation.”

Graterol suffered a hamstring injury on August 6 in his first game back from his first IL stint and was forced to miss another 30 games. Overall, he appeared in just seven games this year, posting a 2.45 ERA with seven strikeouts and two walks in his 7⅓ innings. In total, Graterol was only active for 16 games this season.

The Dodgers called up Ben Casparius just two days after he was optioned. The right-hander threw his final pitch on Sunday, striking out five in relief in three innings.

Casparius is a starter by trade, but his two previous major league appearances have come in relief, as he won his major league debut with a scoreless eighth inning against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field on August 31.

“Debut day in Arizona was really the first time in my entire career that I came into a game late, in a leverage situation, honestly in my entire career,” Casparius said Thursday. “It’s pretty cool to do it at the highest level. I definitely proved something to myself too.”

Roberts said Casparius would be used in coverage if necessary, which likely meant an appearance in multiple innings. That could happen by Friday, when the Dodgers host a bullpen game in the opener at Coors Field.

Left-hander Anthony Banda, who is eligible to return from the injured list, has not yet been activated. But it’s not hard to imagine a situation where Casparius is deployed on one of the next days and then selected for Banda. But we’ll find out this weekend.